For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:    AM Acknowledged Mode    AMD Acknowledged Mode Data    ARQ Automatic Repeat Request    BCCH Broadcast Control CHannel    BCH Broadcast CHannel    C- Control-    CCCH Common Control CHannel    CCH Control CHannel    CCTrCH Coded Composite Transport Channel    CP Cyclic Prefix    CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check    CTCH Common Traffic Channel    D-BCH Dynamic Broadcast CHannel    DCCH Dedicated Control CHannel    DCH Dedicated CHannel    DL DownLink    DSCH Downlink Shared CHannel    DTCH Dedicated Traffic CHannel    FACH Forward link Access CHannel    FDD Frequency Division Duplex    L1 Layer 1 (physical layer)    L2 Layer 2 (data link layer)    L3 Layer 3 (network layer)    LI Length Indicator    LSB Least Significant Bit    MAC Medium Access Control    MBMS Multmedia Broadcast Multicast Service    MCCH MBMS point-to-multipoint Control CHannel    MRW Move Receiving Window    MSB Most Significant Bit    MSCH MBMS point-to-multipoint Scheduling CHannel    MTCH MBMS point-to-multipoint Traffic Channel    P-BCH Primary Broadcast CHannel    PCCH Paging Control Channel    PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator CHannel    PCH Paging Channel    PDCCH Physical Downlink Control CHannel    PDU Protocol Data Unit    PHY PHYsical layer    PHICH Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator CHannel    PhyCH Physical CHannels    RACH Random Access Channel    RE Resource Element    RS Reference Signal    RLC Radio Link Control    RoHC Robust Header Compression    RRC Radio Resource Control    SAP Service Access Point    SDU Service Data Unit    SHCCH SHared channel Control CHannel    SN Sequence Number    SUFI SUper FIeld    TCH Traffic CHannel    TDD Time Division Duplex    TFI Transport Format Indicator    TM Transparent Mode    TMD Transparent Mode Data    TTI Transmission Time Interval    U- User-    UE User Equipment    UL UpLink    UM Unacknowledged Mode    UMD Unacknowledged Mode Data    UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System    UTRA UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access    UTRAN UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) wireless phone technologies. Currently, the most common form of UMTS uses W-CDMA as the underlying air interface. UMTS is standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and is sometimes marketed as 3GSM as a way of emphasizing the combination of the 3G nature of the technology and the GSM standard which it was designed to succeed.
UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) is a collective term for the Node-B's and Radio Network Controllers which make up the UMTS radio access network. The UTRAN allows connectivity between the UE and a core network, and can include UEs, Node Bs, and Radio Network Controllers (RNCs)—noting that an RNC and Node B can be the same device, although typical implementations have a separate RNC located in a central office serving multiple Node B's.
For UMTS, a Broadcast Channel (BCH) may have a fixed pre-defined transport format and may be broadcasted over the entire coverage area of a cell. In Long Term Evolutino (LTE) which improves upon the UMTS standard, the broadcast channel may be used to transmit a “System Information field” necessary for system access. However, due to the large size of a System Information field, the BCH may be divided into two portions including a Primary Broadcast CHannel (P-BCH) and Dynamic Broadcast CHannel (D-BCH). The P-BCH may contain basic Layer 1 (physical layer)/Layer 2 (data link layer) (or “L1/L2”) system parameters useful to demodulate the D-BCH, which in turn may contain the remaining System Information field.
It may occur that a UE may need to blindly decode a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) from from several possible formats and associated Control Channel Elements (CCEs). Unfortunately, this may impose a substantial burden on the UE that may exceed practical hardware limitations and thus lead to increased costs and/or reduced performance of the UE.
Therefore, there is a need for addressing this issue. Accordingly, methods and systems for addressing this and other issues are disclosed herein.